Dire Maul tribute run

The Dire Maul Tribute Run is a way to get gear from the Dire Maul instance. When King Gordok is killed, the player is declared king and all the remaining bosses give tribute, which is often better than the gear they drop when you kill them individually. The goal is therefore to kill the king without killing any other bosses.

Heading to the instance

All the mobs outside the instance can be avoided entirely by riding around them. Take care and stick together just in case one aggros. Head up the ramp into Eldreth Row, follow the corridor as it turns right and then left. At the T-junction, directly across from the entrance corridor is a massive closed arched doorway. Alcoves to the right and left provide a path around the door.

Beyond the large door are the Broken Commons, which contains the arena. The DM North entrance is all the way across on the other side. Ride around the perimeter of the commons until you reach the doors, avoiding ogres and dogs as you go. Up the ramp you will find a door.

Inside the instance

Around the corner inside the instance, there is one ogre on a short patrol path. Kill it and wait for a couple of patrols to pass. As they do, pull them back to the entrance alcove and dispose of them.

From the entrance alcove, head to the left, pulling and killing ogre groups until you have reached the corner. You should now be near a separate room that has a slight ramp up to it and a large raised rectangular part in the middle.

When you head in to the new area, be careful of more patrols; take your time, pulling and killing. Head to the left and get to the corner. You will now be able to see a ramp up to the rectangular platform; Guard Fengus patrols that area, and he comes down and turns right, walks up to the corner and then goes back. Be wary of him; if you do aggro him, run to the instance entrance while leaving a durable member (who will die) to keep Fengus occupied long enough that everyone else gets out, at which point he will reset rather than go to the instance entrance to greet you when you come back in. If he does aggro, it's still early enough in the run to reset the instance and try again without too much lost time.

You need to get across the room to the door on the west side: the shortest path is to follow the left wall, but you'll have to deal with Fengus' patrol pattern. It helps to put a raid marker on him, which can sometimes be seen through terrain objects and let you know he's coming.

Inside the Inner Instance

Head in and clear the mobs, including some bugs which need a little AoE lesson. At the bottom of the ramp, you'll come to a room where you can see a Broken Ice Trap. Hang back for a minute and watch Guard Slip'Kik, who patrols this area. His patrol pattern takes him right over the Broken Ice Trap. Pull the mobs by the fire back away from Slip'kik when his patrol pattern allows for it and dispose of them.

When Guard Slip'Kik walks away, quickly fix the trap with 1 [Frost Oil] & 1 [Thorium Widget]. Then move back and wait for the idiot of an ogre to activate the trap. He will now be frozen for the remainder of the instance.

It is possible to get past Guard Slip'kik without using the trap at all, although it is a little tricky. You must carefully observe Guard Slip'kik's patrol pattern – make sure he is at the complete other end of the room, as far away as possible, before you attempt to pull other mobs in the room. Before moving past him, you will need to pull a total of two groups of mobs and one wandering [Eye of Kilrogg]. These groups are: two ogre-mages and their pets in the far corner of the room, past the trap, and under the staircase two whirlwind axe ogres. Make sure, however, that when pulling the first group (with the mages) that the entire group runs all the way back into the doorway that led into the room, as they have range and you will need to be that far back in order for them to move out of Guard Slip'kik's patrol path. The ogres with the whirlwind axes are easier, but similarly pull them far back so that you are not within Guard Slip'kik's patrol. Once you have downed these two groups, head into the far corner where the mages were, then run along that wall towards the stairs until you get to a small pillar jutting out of the wall that blocks you from walking further. Make sure you are as close against this wall as possible. Guard Slip'kik should walk by without aggro, giving you enough time to run towards the stairs, pulling the remaining mobs three quarters up the stairway. This is difficult, as you must be high enough that Guard Slip'kik will not aggro when he walks back, and you don't want to aggro the group of mobs at the top of the stairs. It may take a bit of practice, but without much trouble you can save yourself a few gold or time going to town to get the ingredients if you forgot them.

Fight your way through the rest of this room and up the ramp to the next level. You will need to clear this level of all mobs, which is only a couple of groups. Once you have done that, heal up and rebuff, as when you loot the Ogre Tannin (BoP) Gordok Bushwacker will come down the ramp and attack; he is not hard as long as you have rested. He has a very high probability of dropping the key to free Knot Thimblejack, if you haven't picked one up yet.

Whoever has the Ogre Tannin can head back to the Goblin and make the Gordok Ogre Suit, or make it themselves if they've learned the pattern. I would recommend that you all go down in case one of the Eyes turns up. Once you have it, head up back up the ramp and clear all the mobs away from the door area.

King's Area

Head through the inner Courtyard door. Clear the mobs until you reach Captain Kromcrush. At this point, use the Gordok Ogre Suit and have a little chat with him. He will turn red and run back the way you came. Do not worry; you cannot aggro him after he has turned red from the ogre suit. Also do not waste the opportunity to see an ogre dance - whoever has the suit on should try a few emotes as they can be quite funny!

Clear your way up to the dais where King Gordok is. He does not call for help and does not generally run off the dais or knock people off, so it's only necessary to clear enough of the ogres to get there safely.

Boss Fight

Usually you'll want to keep the King's advisor (Cho'Rush the Observer) alive as this will improve the tribute loot. Cho'Rush does, however, drop very nice loot, some of which is better than what can be found in the tribute chest. He will, however, heal the King so it's best to keep him busy in some way that prevents him from doing this. Hunters can use [Freezing Trap] on him to buy a few seconds at the start of the fight, but he is immune to other forms of crowd control. The best solution is to have one durable player offtank him and pull him far away from the King. A Shaman is ideal for this task, as he can tank, heal, and interrupt casting with low rank Earth Shock and Grounding Totem. Other self-sufficient classes such as Paladins and Druids can capably offtank him, and even a well-geared Rogue can keep Cho'Rush busy with stuns and interrupts. One very easy way (maybe the best way) to tank the King's advisor is to have a warlock put his Felhunter on him and ask the warlock to put curse of tongues on the advisor. You wouldn't even need to heal the Felhunter since he does it himself and the warlock can actually join the Boss fight himself. The King hits like a truck, so keep him on the tank and off your cloth. If all goes well you will now have the King's dropped loot and the Gordok Tribute.

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